Meet WeGoLook, A Company Revolutionizing The Insurance Industry With On-Demand Field Services

While the internet has enabled consumers to buy anything they want from anywhere in the world, consumers still cannot verify that they are purchasing the exact item they see online. Without the ability to see the product, try it on, or take it for a test drive, consumers can find ecommerce a lot less seamless than it appears.

This very conundrum led Robin Smith to create WeGoLook, a business designed to send “Lookers” to verify that the item a customer wants to purchase is exactly what she hoped for. The company’s process involves matching an interested buyer’s request for verification with a Looker located near the item in question. Via an on-site visit, the Looker assesses the product and offers a report to WeGoLook, which outlines the findings for the prospective buyer.

Protecting consumers started out as Smith’s goal, but WeGoLook is now trusted by Fortune 500 companies like Tesla and GE Capital. With more than 30,000 Lookers currently on its roster, WeGoLook is able to collect real-time information for individuals and businesses, enabling these customers to make quicker decisions and focus on other vital aspects of their work or interests.

I recently had a chance to talk with Smith, the company’s founder and CEO, about the inspiration behind the brand, what sets its methods apart, and what acquisition means for the future of WeGoLook.

Credit: WeGoLook

WeGoLook

Alexander Taub: How did WeGoLook get started? What’s the story behind it?

Robin Smith: I started WeGoLook in late 2009, when a friend was thinking of bidding on an eBay item but thought the seller was misrepresenting the item. She said, “I wish I had someone to go look at that for me.” After performing research online, I couldn’t find a service provider to perform that type of task.

So I built a platform, recruited my first group of Lookers, and launched out of beta in December 2010, with the sole intention of assisting individuals like you and I with mitigating risk when purchasing items sight unseen. I wanted to be able to dispatch, on demand, a Looker on behalf of the marketplace consumer to take current photos of the asset or item; take measurements; make a video with a working demonstration of the item; answer custom questions; perform less complex tasks such as taking possession of the item and delivering it to a shipper; and then deliver all of the electronic data to the customer in the form of an inspection report.

My goal was to provide the customer with information he otherwise would not have access to, enabling him to make an informed purchasing decision and verify the seller was legitimate. And dreams do come true: WeGoLook is currently the official inspection arm for eBay Motors.

The business model began evolving into on-demand services for businesses in 2012. In fact, WeGoLook features an entire turnkey solution, beginning with a customer service department that calls to schedule the on-site appointment with a customer, providing the mobile technology customized to clients’ needs for on-site data capture, and ending with a Quality Assurance review team that ensures delivery of a consistent and high-quality report to the customer.

Taub: Are there any innovations or new products on the horizon?

Smith: People began to think of us as the “Uber of Inspections.” Companies needing a nationwide footprint of service coverage with very customized reporting and on-site data collection began requesting on-demand field services performed by our Lookers. What made us unique is that we were able to perform multiple services, not just provide auto inspections, heavy equipment inspections, property inspections, notary services, etc. WeGoLook was able to perform all of these services — no other traditional field services company can do this.

WeGoLook Lookers are now part of the process. Yes, as the gig economy or sharing economy has become increasingly popular, most services focus on individuals, not consistent corporate services. Our Lookers are actually augmenting an enterprise client’s field force or serving as its only labor force, in some cases. For example, one of our largest clients offers a quick cash loan on a vehicle the customer has equity in.

The old process looked like this: The customer brought a vehicle title to a brick-and-mortar branch to close an application with a loan officer. This resulted in a low conversion rate and a long cycle time.

The new WeGoLook process for this customer works like this: WeGoLook schedules the earliest and most convenient appointment for the bank customer at his home, place of employment, Starbucks — wherever. Then, a Looker with notary certification is dispatched to the location of the vehicle with finance documents. He performs the condition report on the vehicle, executes the documents, and picks up the original title and delivers that to FedEx, shipping it to the corporate office. The sales team at the bank can see the documents are properly authorized, views the vehicle condition report, and funds the customer almost in real time — before the FedEx shipment of original documents even arrives. This is performed on the same day as the order receipt, with a much higher conversion rate.

Another new feature is the ability for our enterprise clients to quickly put our app in the hands of their own employees, a third party, or a Looker, with all the data flowing to the same location in the same manner. For example, fleet vehicles or semis that are in transit can be difficult to locate as they travel from yard to yard. We can simply upload the inspection schema provided to us by the company and put it in the hands of yard workers and drivers, and if there are multiple assets in one location, supplement the data capture with a team of Lookers.

Taub: You were recently acquired by a major player in the industry, Crawford & Company. How has this impacted your business?

Smith: Crawford & Company, the world’s largest third-party administrator (TPA) firm, acquired 85 percent of WeGoLook in January. This was a great opportunity for us since it gives us an immediate presence in more than 70 countries and access to thousands of potential corporate clients. WeGoLook also has the resources behind us to begin incorporating image recognition and artificial intelligence into our mobile platform, along with the human resources, such as contractors and catastrophe adjusters, being added to WeGoLook’s Looker network.

The partnership will revolutionize the loss adjusting process within the insurance industry, allowing for real-time on-site data capture and ensuring a fast flow of information to the carrier and the policyholder, at a much lower cost to the carrier.

Taub: You’ve been a great woman leader in the industry. I have a daughter — what advice would you tell me to give her?

Smith: My advice to young women is this: Don’t be your own worst naysayer. Once I realized that I didn’t necessarily need to be an industry expert to be an industry leader, I felt really empowered and free to move forward with creating new features and solutions within our platform while building the right team. I had to get out of my mindset of limiting myself.